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Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton,... 2022Tissue processing is the technique by which fixed tissues are made suitable for embedding within a supportive medium such as paraffin, and consists of three sequential...
Tissue processing is the technique by which fixed tissues are made suitable for embedding within a supportive medium such as paraffin, and consists of three sequential steps: dehydration, clearing, and infiltration. In most clinical and research settings, tissue processing is accomplished using an automated tissue processor, with or without microwave-assistance. To ensure high-quality results, processing protocols should be tailored to tissue size and composition by modifying variables such as reagents used and the timing of the various steps. Herein, we provide an overview of tissue processing theory and outline a basic tissue processing method for use with a conventional automated fluid transfer/enclosed processor. The principles described will assist readers in optimizing tissue processing for their own projects.
Topics: Microwaves; Paraffin; Paraffin Embedding; Specimen Handling; Tissue Fixation
PubMed: 34859398
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1948-3_4 -
Physical Review Letters May 2021Ternary quantum processors offer significant potential computational advantages over conventional qubit technologies, leveraging the encoding and processing of quantum...
Ternary quantum processors offer significant potential computational advantages over conventional qubit technologies, leveraging the encoding and processing of quantum information in qutrits (three-level systems). To evaluate and compare the performance of such emerging quantum hardware it is essential to have robust benchmarking methods suitable for a higher-dimensional Hilbert space. We demonstrate extensions of industry standard randomized benchmarking (RB) protocols, developed and used extensively for qubits, suitable for ternary quantum logic. Using a superconducting five-qutrit processor, we find an average single-qutrit process infidelity of 3.8×10^{-3}. Through interleaved RB, we characterize a few relevant gates, and employ simultaneous RB to fully characterize crosstalk errors. Finally, we apply cycle benchmarking to a two-qutrit CSUM gate and obtain a two-qutrit process fidelity of 0.85. Our results present and demonstrate RB-based tools to characterize the performance of a qutrit processor, and a general approach to diagnose control errors in future qudit hardware.
PubMed: 34114846
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.210504 -
Journal of the American Chemical Society Nov 2023Programmable biomolecule-mediated computing is a new computing paradigm as compared to contemporary electronic computing. It employs nucleic acids and analogous... (Review)
Review
Programmable biomolecule-mediated computing is a new computing paradigm as compared to contemporary electronic computing. It employs nucleic acids and analogous biomolecular structures as information-storing and -processing substrates to tackle computational problems. It is of great significance to investigate the various issues of programmable biomolecule-mediated processors that are capable of automatically processing, storing, and displaying information. This Perspective provides several conceptual designs of programmable biomolecule-mediated processors and provides some insights into potential future research directions for programmable biomolecule-mediated processors.
PubMed: 37864571
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c04142 -
Science Robotics Jun 2022Autonomous robots are expected to perform a wide range of sophisticated tasks in complex, unknown environments. However, available onboard computing capabilities and... (Review)
Review
Autonomous robots are expected to perform a wide range of sophisticated tasks in complex, unknown environments. However, available onboard computing capabilities and algorithms represent a considerable obstacle to reaching higher levels of autonomy, especially as robots get smaller and the end of Moore's law approaches. Here, we argue that inspiration from insect intelligence is a promising alternative to classic methods in robotics for the artificial intelligence (AI) needed for the autonomy of small, mobile robots. The advantage of insect intelligence stems from its resource efficiency (or parsimony) especially in terms of power and mass. First, we discuss the main aspects of insect intelligence underlying this parsimony: embodiment, sensory-motor coordination, and swarming. Then, we take stock of where insect-inspired AI stands as an alternative to other approaches to important robotic tasks such as navigation and identify open challenges on the road to its more widespread adoption. Last, we reflect on the types of processors that are suitable for implementing insect-inspired AI, from more traditional ones such as microcontrollers and field-programmable gate arrays to unconventional neuromorphic processors. We argue that even for neuromorphic processors, one should not simply apply existing AI algorithms but exploit insights from natural insect intelligence to get maximally efficient AI for robot autonomy.
Topics: Algorithms; Animals; Artificial Intelligence; Insecta; Robotics
PubMed: 35704608
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abl6334 -
Seminars in Hearing May 2021This case study examines the methods used to troubleshoot a cochlear implant processor via video visit with a nonagenarian (90+ years old) with a bimodal cochlear... (Review)
Review
This case study examines the methods used to troubleshoot a cochlear implant processor via video visit with a nonagenarian (90+ years old) with a bimodal cochlear implant system. This article will discuss the evaluation and management as well as which specific issues could be addressed virtually and how they were resolved. Examples will be provided about how to virtually connect with the patient and how to best facilitate communication during a video visit. Additionally, this article will examine the captioning apps and other hearing assistive technology available for smartphones that can provide further assistance during a cell phone call along with their benefits and limitations.
PubMed: 34381294
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1731691 -
Nature Communications Mar 2022Controlling and programming quantum devices to process quantum information by the unit of quantum dit, i.e., qudit, provides the possibilities for noise-resilient...
Controlling and programming quantum devices to process quantum information by the unit of quantum dit, i.e., qudit, provides the possibilities for noise-resilient quantum communications, delicate quantum molecular simulations, and efficient quantum computations, showing great potential to enhance the capabilities of qubit-based quantum technologies. Here, we report a programmable qudit-based quantum processor in silicon-photonic integrated circuits and demonstrate its enhancement of quantum computational parallelism. The processor monolithically integrates all the key functionalities and capabilities of initialisation, manipulation, and measurement of the two quantum quart (ququart) states and multi-value quantum-controlled logic gates with high-level fidelities. By reprogramming the configuration of the processor, we implemented the most basic quantum Fourier transform algorithms, all in quaternary, to benchmark the enhancement of quantum parallelism using qudits, which include generalised Deutsch-Jozsa and Bernstein-Vazirani algorithms, quaternary phase estimation and fast factorization algorithms. The monolithic integration and high programmability have allowed the implementations of more than one million high-fidelity preparations, operations and projections of qudit states in the processor. Our work shows an integrated photonic quantum technology for qudit-based quantum computing with enhanced capacity, accuracy, and efficiency, which could lead to the acceleration of building a large-scale quantum computer.
PubMed: 35246519
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28767-x -
Physical Review Letters Sep 2022Approximation based on perturbation theory is the foundation for most of the quantitative predictions of quantum mechanics, whether in quantum many-body physics,...
Approximation based on perturbation theory is the foundation for most of the quantitative predictions of quantum mechanics, whether in quantum many-body physics, chemistry, quantum field theory, or other domains. Quantum computing provides an alternative to the perturbation paradigm, yet state-of-the-art quantum processors with tens of noisy qubits are of limited practical utility. Here, we introduce perturbative quantum simulation, which combines the complementary strengths of the two approaches, enabling the solution of large practical quantum problems using limited noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware. The use of a quantum processor eliminates the need to identify a solvable unperturbed Hamiltonian, while the introduction of perturbative coupling permits the quantum processor to simulate systems larger than the available number of physical qubits. We present an explicit perturbative expansion that mimics the Dyson series expansion and involves only local unitary operations, and show its optimality over other expansions under certain conditions. We numerically benchmark the method for interacting bosons, fermions, and quantum spins in different topologies, and study different physical phenomena, such as information propagation, charge-spin separation, and magnetism, on systems of up to 48 qubits only using an 8+1 qubit quantum hardware. We demonstrate our scheme on the IBM quantum cloud, verifying its noise robustness and illustrating its potential for benchmarking large quantum processors with smaller ones.
PubMed: 36179156
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.120505 -
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical... Apr 2020This paper reviews the state of the arts and trends of the AI-Based biomedical processing algorithms and hardware. The algorithms and hardware for different biomedical... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews the state of the arts and trends of the AI-Based biomedical processing algorithms and hardware. The algorithms and hardware for different biomedical applications such as ECG, EEG and hearing aid have been reviewed and discussed. For algorithm design, various widely used biomedical signal classification algorithms have been discussed including support vector machine (SVM), back propagation neural network (BPNN), convolutional neural networks (CNN), probabilistic neural networks (PNN), recurrent neural networks (RNN), Short-term Memory Network (LSTM), fuzzy neural network and etc. The pros and cons of the classification algorithms have been analyzed and compared in the context of application scenarios. The research trends of AI-Based biomedical processing algorithms and applications are also discussed. For hardware design, various AI-Based biomedical processors have been reviewed and discussed, including ECG classification processor, EEG classification processor, EMG classification processor and hearing aid processor. Various techniques on architecture and circuit level have been analyzed and compared. The research trends of the AI-Based biomedical processor have also been discussed.
Topics: Algorithms; Artificial Intelligence; Biomedical Engineering; Electrodiagnosis; Humans; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
PubMed: 32078560
DOI: 10.1109/TBCAS.2020.2974154 -
Nature Communications Feb 2024Structured optical materials create new computing paradigms using photons, with transformative impact on various fields, including machine learning, computer vision,... (Review)
Review
Structured optical materials create new computing paradigms using photons, with transformative impact on various fields, including machine learning, computer vision, imaging, telecommunications, and sensing. This Perspective sheds light on the potential of free-space optical systems based on engineered surfaces for advancing optical computing. Manipulating light in unprecedented ways, emerging structured surfaces enable all-optical implementation of various mathematical functions and machine learning tasks. Diffractive networks, in particular, bring deep-learning principles into the design and operation of free-space optical systems to create new functionalities. Metasurfaces consisting of deeply subwavelength units are achieving exotic optical responses that provide independent control over different properties of light and can bring major advances in computational throughput and data-transfer bandwidth of free-space optical processors. Unlike integrated photonics-based optoelectronic systems that demand preprocessed inputs, free-space optical processors have direct access to all the optical degrees of freedom that carry information about an input scene/object without needing digital recovery or preprocessing of information. To realize the full potential of free-space optical computing architectures, diffractive surfaces and metasurfaces need to advance symbiotically and co-evolve in their designs, 3D fabrication/integration, cascadability, and computing accuracy to serve the needs of next-generation machine vision, computational imaging, mathematical computing, and telecommunication technologies.
PubMed: 38378715
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45982-w -
Acta Oto-laryngologica Mar 2021Signal processing algorithms are the hidden components in the audio processor that converts the received acoustic signal into electrical impulses while maintaining as...
Signal processing algorithms are the hidden components in the audio processor that converts the received acoustic signal into electrical impulses while maintaining as much relevant information as possible. Signal processing algorithms should be smart enough to mimic the functionality of external, middle and the inner-ear to provide the cochlear implant (CI) user with a hearing experience as natural as possible. Modern sound processing strategies are based on the continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) strategy proposed by B. Wilson in 1991, which provided envelope information over several intracochlear electrodes. The CIS strategy brought significant gains in speech perception. Translational research activities of MED-EL resulted in further improvements in speech understanding in noisy environments as well as enjoyment of music by not only coding CIS-based envelope information, but by also representing temporal fine structure information in the stimulation patterns of the apical channels. Further developments include "complete cochlear coverage" made possible by deep insertion of the intracochlear electrode, elaborate front end processing, anatomy based fitting (ABF), triphasic pulse stimulation instrumental in the suppression of facial nerve stimulation, and bimodal delay compensation allowing unilateral CI users to experience hearing with hearing aids on the contralateral ear. The large number of hardware developments might be exemplified by the RONDO, the world's first single unit audio processor in 2013. This article covers the milestones of translational research around the signal processing and audio processor topic that took place in association with MED-EL.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Auditory Pathways; Cochlear Implantation; Cochlear Implants; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Sound Localization; Speech Perception
PubMed: 33818264
DOI: 10.1080/00016489.2021.1888504